Bastian's Storm (Surviving Raine 2)

I tentatively reached over his body and placed my hand on Raine’s hip. I couldn’t bind her to myself like I usually did at night with Alex between us, but the sense of contentment I felt inside of myself told me it didn’t matter. I had both of them with me, secure and protected.

Raine reached over and placed her hand on top of my forearm, right above where Alex slept.

“You okay?” she asked quietly.

I looked from her to Alex and back to her again. Blinking a few times, that warm feeling came over me again.

“Yeah,” I said. “Better than okay, actually.”

Raine smiled, settled herself, and soon joined Alex in slumber.

I watched them both for a few minutes as I tried to work out what was going on in my head. I didn’t have any words for it, so I gave up, closed my eyes, and had the best night’s sleep of my life.

I rose early the next day and went over the travel plans Landon had left with me. In a couple of hours, we’d head to the Thompson Airport. A plane would take us over to a small airport on the edge of Hudson Bay. From there, we would head up to a remote airfield located somewhere in the Northwestern Passage. It was an area so inhospitable that it didn’t allow for any road traffic, only aircraft. The last leg of the trip would carry us to Resolute Bay by prop plane. The tournament would take place just south of the airfield there.

I was more concerned with spending as much time as possible with Raine and Alex before I left for the games than with our travel plans. However, they both seemed content to sleep in, and I couldn’t bring myself to wake them.

I drank black coffee as I sat at the small kitchen table and realized I didn’t even want a cigarette. That made me smile. I sipped up the last of the coffee, started another pot brewing, and began to make breakfast.

The smell woke Raine, and she shuffled down the hall, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Her hair was bunched up all over the place, and she tried to tame it with her fingers, but it wasn’t working well.

“Morning,” she mumbled.

“Morning,” I replied with a smile. “You’re beautiful.”

“Ha,” she said.

“You are.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

She poured herself some coffee and sat at the table to watch me flip omelets.

“Find some acceptable food?” she asked.

“Reasonably,” I said. “There isn’t much to put in the omelets except for these orange squares claiming to be cheese, but it shouldn’t be too bad. I used more whites than yolks.”

“How did you sleep?” Raine asked.

“Pretty good,” I said. I looked back over my shoulder at her. “Really good, actually.”

Raine returned the smile over the rim of her coffee mug.

A blurry-eyed Alex wandered into the kitchen and plopped down on one of the chairs. At first, he seemed a little startled at my presence but smiled a bit when I put a plate full of bacon and a cheese omelet in front of him.

“Can I have toast?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes at the only bread in the kitchen but toasted it for him anyway. He proceeded to use it to make a giant sandwich out of the eggs and bacon.

“He likes sandwiches,” Raine said with a shrug.

“Apparently.”

Raine took her plate and sat down next to him, and I sat on the opposite side. My food went a little cold as I watched him eat, seeing small traits within myself with nearly every movement he made.

It was surreal.